Introduction:
Recently it has been discovered that tf2's aspect ratio scaling has been modified. The changes made seem to be mostly a negative trait, specially with matchmaking coming up. The problem that has been identified seems to be due to the real FOV not scaling properly as width and length is altered but the FOV desired kept the same. Using two sources (Source FOV calculator and Aspect Ratio Calculator), these have been proven with screenshots below. Within this post we will compare this problem with another source game (Counter strike: Global offensive) to prove this problem is tf2 related and it shouldn't behave like this.
Screenshots obtained for the various games : Click here
As foretold by the description of the screenshots within the imgur album, the first screenshot is taken at 1920 x 1080 resolution and with the desired FOV of 90, resulting in 106.26 real FOV as it can be calculated using the Source FOV calculator given above(The aspect ratio for 1920 x 1080 is 16:9 as it can be proven by the Aspect ratio calculator).
The second screenshot within the imgur album, is a scaled version with black bars of the resolution 1920 x 480. All settings remained the same throughout this process but the change of the resolution. The actual FOV did increment ever so slightly which leads to estimate that it may have incremented to 107 to 110 actual FOV while due to my calculations using the websites above: The aspect ratio for the resolution 1920 x 480 is 4 : 1 which gives us an actual FOV of 143.13.
In comparison to Counter strike: Global Offensive this scaling issue does not occur as it is shown by the second set of screenshots portraying dust 2 CT MID where it clearly shows that the FOV has been scaled correctly although it has not been proven of being so. Nevertheless the scaling at the least seems to be correct or better than the scaling in tf2.
Edit: Regarding the Tf2 scaling issue, it seems it did not exist since the existence of tf2, this can be said due to this recently acquired figure of two identical screenshots one taken in 2012 and the other taken in 2016, the position of the character may not be exact although it has been replicated to the best possible.
Link to the image relating to this paragraph :
http://imgur.com/a/0ybF3
2nd Edit: As
zetorrisv_restrict_aspect_ratio_fov
- This can be used to limit the effective FOV of users using wide-screen
resolutions with aspect ratios wider than 1.85:1 (slightly wider than 16:9).
0 = do not cap effective FOV
1 = limit the effective FOV on windowed mode users using resolutions
greater than 1.85:1
2 = limit the effective FOV on both windowed mode and full-screen users
This is the command that caused this "bug" on a server that enforced it, I'm not sure if it's been broken/made obsolete by the last few patches.
has said, this is caused due to this server side command. Although as the setting for this command states, "1" means the actual FOV ( or effective) is limited to WINDOWED mode users that use an aspect ratio bigger than 1.85:1 this means it is possible to have an actual FOV of 143.13 if the game is set for fullscreen and with black bars.